Muscle maintenance of athletes and persons in general comprises of all active and passive measures directed to accelerate a person's physical and mental recovery after physical exercise, to prevent acute and strain injuries, to attain an optimal relaxation and to enable a person to adopt an economic, efficient and an injury preventative way of exercising her body.
Various devices have been used as an aid to practice muscle maintenance. In particular, an approach advocated by many has been to roll one's back over a roller of various prescribed shapes while in a supine position. This method has the commendable goal of forced articulation of the vertebrae and stimulating the metabolism and stretching of exercised muscular groups and to massage the critical muscles, tendon, ligaments and articulations in a specific body region. While widely used and often portable, light and convenient, this category of exercise rollers finds a somewhat narrow field of application because of the limited exercise positions they provide, if an ergonomic exercise posture is to be maintained. This is true especially in case of exercise lower and upper extremities.
There exists various elevated and supported exercise devices containing one or more rollers or other rotatably or slideably mounted arrangements to direct a force or pressure to a specific body region with a similar goal as described above. While more versatile than a mere exercise roller, these exercise devices are often heavy fixedly placed equipment not meant to be portable and necessitating to reserve a considerable floor area for their placement, use and storage.
Other devices exist, which being either directed at a special or more versatile purpose, depend upon a separate operator of the device. In case of these devices, to receive the exercise or massage effect of the device, the person being object for the treatment at least partially relies on the actions of the one or more persons operating the device.